What are the best first person accounts of American fighting in WW2 ?

[malthaussen]

8. 3rd Army, you mean?

First of all, without your father's Service Number (as in "name, rank, and serial number&quot and SSN, you can't get his records from the National Archives, which is where they are stored. Prior to 1 July 1969, Army personnel were not identified by SSN, but by the Service Number.

Second of all, a lot of records were lost in a fire in 1973. As your father was in the Army, his records were probably lost if he was discharged prior to 1 January 1960. Some reconstruction has been done, but finding those records is particularly difficult and requires more information than you probably already have, e.g. date and place of discharge. It's a Catch-22 of sorts: you need the information from his records for them to locate his records.

Thirdly, if you could find the required information, you'd have to send a signed request to the National Archives (preferably using form SF-180) for them to send you a copy of the information, which would require a fee. Ranging from $25 to $70.

For more information consult the National Archives Veterans' Service Records site. You may be able to find your father's serial number by using the AAD search function -- I was able to find my father's number using it. Linky: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/
Enter your dad's name in the name field thus: #lastname#firstname and you may be able to find him. You could add another asterisk and his middle initial after firstname, if the name is somewhat common.

Link to the National Archives Veterans' Service Records site: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/ You can learn everything you need to know about the process here. There is probably a way to find his records without having his SSN, you might want to send a letter of inquiry. Just remember that the NA receives a lot of requests every year, and the gristmill of the gods grinds exceedingly fine, but also exceedingly slow.

Having said all that, the information available through the Archives may not be what you want anyway. If you want information about the battles he was in you'd need to find a good unit history for his outfit. There are a zillion of these online, and since he was in 3rd Army there's an even greater-likelihood of finding information, as that is one of the more well-discussed armies.

At the very least, you should see if you can find your father's enlistment record with the AAD search function. I did that some years ago, and it was kind of eerie seeing info from before I was born. Second only to discovering a putative ancestor mentioned in a history book.

On a different note: US soldiers who were in Europe at the end of the war received a copy of a book called Soldier's Album, which contains many contemporary photographs of the European conflict. (Similar books were published for other theatres) I still have my father's copy, it may be possible that your father's is still around somewhere. Most of the photos have been seen a million times, but it's an interesting item.

-- Mal